Multiple sound outputs on Mint 18+? [SOLVED]

[Pw1exclam]

I have a laptop that is also connected to a TV via HDMI. In Windows, I can set one video player to display on the TV, another player to display on the laptop, and I can separate the sound on each to play on the corresponding display. Well, I got sick of the constant Windows 10 updates, so I decided to create a partition with Mint 18.3. However, I cannot find a way to separate the sound, let's say if I have Xplayer playing on my laptop screen and VLC on my TV. I have to output the audio for both, to either the TV or the laptop.

It looks like in versions 17 and prior, I could install something called Veromix to separate the sound outputs, but attempting to install this in 18.3 results in some dependency error. Are there any other solutions available?

[MrEen]

Hi Pw1exclam.

I can't test this (no HDMI connection here) but install PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) and go to the Playback tab. Send the VLC output to your HDMI device and the XPlayer output to your Built-in Audio device.

Does that work?

[Pw1exclam]

Hi, I installed pavucontrol and this is what I see on the Playback tab:


I do not know how to send the outputs appropriately, and there is literally no documentation. I've basically been clicking all over the place with no luck. Any suggestions?

[MrEen]

This is weird. This is the second time in a week I've seen a screenshot like yours. On my 18.3 Xfce I have a box I can click on to change the output that is in front of the speaker icons. Similar to this:


Can you give me a screenshot of the Configuration tab? My only guess at the moment is if only one card is set it might show like yours.

The Configuration tab should hopefully have at least two card listed that Profiles can be set for. If there's only one, paste back the output of running aplay -l in the terminal.

[Pw1exclam]

Thanks for your help, I think we're getting somewhere. Indeed, there's only one card, and aplay shows both my built-in audio and HDMI as card 0. In fact it shows 3 HDMI devices, not sure why. Would splitting off my HDMI into a separate card fix the problem? If so, how would I do that? Thanks.

Code: Select all

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC255 Analog [ALC255 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[MrEen]

That's what I was afraid of. I don't think you can split off the HDMI in the way you're thinking. However, there might be more HDMI sound options available in the graphics card. Let me see the output of inxi -Fxz and cat /proc/asound/cards please.

[MrEen]

Actually, I think I can get this to work for you.

On the Configuration tab, keep the HDMI option selected. Then in the terminal enter gksudo xed /etc/pulse/default.pa (in Mint 19+ it would be xed admin:///etc/pulse/default.pa) and when the file opens scroll to this line and put your cursor at the end of it then hit Enter: # (i.e. not in system mode)

Make sure you're still above the line that reads .nofail that should be the first non-commented line of the file. Now copy this block and paste it into the file:

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### Load analog device
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0
load-module module-combine-sink sink_name=combined
set-default-sink combined

Now in the terminal run pulseaudio -k then look in the Output Devices tab of pavucontrol and you'll hopefully see three choices instead of one. If so, my first post instructions should now be available.

Good luck.

[Pw1exclam]

Success! I'm now able to split the audio appropriately. Thanks for your help!

[MrEen]

Fantastic! You are welcome.